The story of the real-estate mogul’s rise through the 2016 Republican primary slog.

July 11, 2016

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Donald Trump is nothing if not theatrical. Now there’s an intriguing new musical about America’s most controversial political figure. The creation of American Prospect co-founder and editor and friend of The Nation Robert Kuttner, Drumpf is the story of the real-estate mogul’s rise through the 2016 Republican primary slog, concluding with a dramatic duel between Trump and Senator Ted Cruz at the Republican National Convention.

The production took off when Kuttner—inspired by Hamilton—started composing lyrics in the spirit of the musical that has rocked the world, detailing the many comic elements of the Trump campaign’s foibles and triumphs. The (unintentional) comedy kept coming and more songs followed. Kuttner told The Huffington Post that he’s written roughly 90 percent of the script and finished 18 songs, out of a likely 25. To produce the show Kuttner turned to his son, Gabriel Kuttner, an accomplished actor, director, and producer, who, in turn, reached out to acclaimed hip-hop artist Virtuoso a.k.a. Miguel B. Hart. Together, Gabriel and Miguel assembled a talented cast of largely African-American and Latino hip-hop artists to record the music. Miguel, who has released five albums as Virtuoso, took Kuttner’s original lyrics, added some of his own and adapted it all to rousing new musical compositions that he arranged and produced. He also stars as Trump in the videos.

Kuttner is working to stage Drumpf: The Musical in several cities early this fall and hopes to debut it at the end of July as part of the events surrounding the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. These videos, meant to preview the live production, were directed and filmed by the documentary filmmaker Ron Wyman.